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BENSON Jf-LOSSING 



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NEW YORK: 
CHARLES B. RICHARDSOX, 

264 CANAL STREET. 

1863. 






In Sxcl> 
N.Y. Pub. Lib, 




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R. CKAIGIIEAD, 
I'.Prinler, Slereolyper, and Kleclrotyper, 

CTaiton BuiIDing, 
81, S3, and 85 Cerure Slretl. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



As tlie doctrine of Supreme State Sovereignty, deceptively 
called "State Eigiits," is the foundation upon which the Rebels 
rest their claim for justification in passing ordinances of Secession 
and declaring their independence of the National Government, 
and are justified by their sympathizers; and believing that the 
wider circulation, in pamphlet form, of the Historical facts hav- 
ing relation there to, contained in the following pages, from 
Harper's Magazine for January, 1863, wall be useful, the Pub- 
lisher takes pleasure in jd resenting them to the public in this 
form, with the Author's concurrence. 



THE LEAGUE OF STATES. 



The events attendant upon tlie passage of the Stamp Act, 
and the attempts to enforce it, failed to teach wisdom to the 
British cabinet. A fatal pride of power, and love of domina- 
tion, and contempt for the American colonists blinded the 
rulers of Great Britain, and for ten years they listened to the 
popular tumults in the Western World, the petitions of loyal 
men there and at home, and the remonstrances of the oppressed 
in both countries, with a stolid indifference that may be inter- 
preted only by the knowledge which the world had been com- 
pelled to obtain of the amazing conceit, ineffable vanity, and 
cruel selfishness which had always distinguished the public 
acts of the ruling classes of England ever since Mercury became 
their tutelar deity. Finally, when the lightnings of defiance 
flashed from Western clouds upon the dim visions of the King 
and his council, and the muttering of the thunders of revolution 
that came over the Atlantic fell ominously upon their dull ears, 
tliey were compelled to acknowledge a sense of danger and to 
prepare for a coming tempest. They sent armed men to plant 
the heel of military despotism upon the necks of a free j)eoj)le, 
and to choke into silence the annoying clamors for justice in the 
New England capital, where they were loudest and most persist- 
ent. In amazing blindness they annihilated its commerce. The 
port was sealed up, the courts of justice Avere removed fifteen 
miles away, and a thousand households were filled with distress. 
This act, intended to punish, only exasperated. It cemented 
the Union that was formed in the Stamp Act Congress in New 



6 

York almost nine years before. The blow struck at the pros- 
perity of Boston and the government of Massachusetts Bay was 
felt by every colony as an indignity to each to be resented 
without delay. The inhabitants of Boston immediately felt the 
l)ractical sympathy of the continent. Flour, rice, grain, fuel, 
money, and a thousand little articles of comfort flowed in upon 
them from every colony. And the city of London, the capital 
of the oppressor, subscribed, in its corporate capacity, one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the poor of Boston ! 

Throughout the Colonies there was a smothered cry, " To 
arms !" The fife and drum were heard all over the land. The 
train-bands increased in number, and practised daily in the art 
of war during the summer and autumn of ITTi. Fathers and 
sons, encouraged by the gentler sex, received martial lessons 
together, and thousands were enrolled in companies prej^ared to 
take arms at a minute's warning. The popular leaders labored 
incessantly in bringing public opinion into jn-oper shape and 
consistency for vigorous and united action. The people were 
harangued in public assemblies, and the newspaper press 
became bolder and bolder every hour. Epigrams, sonnets, 
parables, dialogues, and every form of literary expression was 
used to convey to the popular mind, with point and terseness, 
the great idea. The following is a fair specimen of the manner 
in which the quarrel was stated, epigrammatically : 

" Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts, in anger, 
Spills the tea on John Bull ; John falls on to bang her. 
Massachusetts, enraged, call her neighbors to aid, 
And give Master John a severe bastinado. 
Now, good men of the law I pray who is in fault — 
The one who begins or resents the assault?" 

Kotwithstanding the warlike preparations, the consciousness 
that forbearance was no longer a virtue, and that slavery or 
armed resistance was the alternative presented to them, the 
long-suffering and patient people hesitated, and resolved to 
deliberate once more in solemn council before they should 
appeal to the ultima ratio rcgum — the final argument of kings, 
as Louis the Fourteenth declared his cannon to be, by the 



inscription of these words upon them. There was a general 
desire for a Continental Congress. Leading minds in every 
province perceived the necessity for a Colonial League ; and 
the patriotic hearts of Anglo-America seemed to beat as with 
one pulsation with that sublime idea. It seemed to the men of 
thought and forecast that the fulness of time had arrived when 
a nation was to be born, and there was an almost simultaneous 
expression of the thought in every part of the British empire in 
America south of the St. Lawrence. Little Rhode Island, whose 
popular sceptre was held by the tremulous hand of Hopkins, was 
the first of the colonies to speak out in favor of a general Con- 
gress ; and yet she was the last, in after-years, owing to a power- 
ful faction, to give her adhesion to the only form of national 
government that promised real vitality, strength, and perpetu- 
ity. A town meeting, held in Providence on the ITth of May, 
1774, proposed a Continental Congress. Another, lield in Phi- 
ladelphia four days afterward — and, of course, without possible 
concert — made a similar proposition. Two days later a public 
meeting in the city of New York expressed the same sentiments. 
Ten days after Phode Island spoke the members of the Yirginia 
Assembly, which Lord Dunmore had just dissolved, met in the 
Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg, and warmly recommended 
the meeting of a general Congress of deputies. On the 31st 
of the month a town meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, expressed 
a desire for a Continental Congress ; and on the 6th of June the 
inhabitants of Connecticut assembled at Norwich made a simi- 
lar expression of views. A county meeting at Newark, New 
Jersey, on the 11th of June ; and the Massachusetts Assembly, 
and a public meeting at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, on the 17th 
— just a year before the battle of Bunker's Hill — strongly 
recommended the measure. On the 29th a county meeting in 
New Castle, Delaware, approved the proposition ; and on the 
6th of July the committee of correspondence at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, expressed their apj)robation. On the 6th, 7th, 
and Stli of July there was held a general Provincial Conven- 
tion at Charleston, South Carolina, and that body ui-ged the 



necessity of snch Congress. Finally, at a district meeting at 
Wilmington, in Xortli Carolina, on the 21st, the assembled 
inhabitants, by resolutions, spoke warmly in favor of delibera- 
tion in a general council of representatives. It will be perceived 
that within the space of sixty-four days, in every Anglo-Ame- 
rican colony excepting Georgia, there were decided public 
expressions of an earnest desire for a Continental Congress for 
the purpose of deliberation on the relations between the Ame- 
rican colonies of Great Britain and the home government. The 
Assembly of Massachusetts proposed the 1st of September, 
1774, as the time when, and the city of Philadelphia as the 
place where, the Continental Congress should convene. The 
other colonies acquiesced ; and on Monday, the 5th of Septem- 
ber, fifty -four delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies 
assembled at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia.* Peyton Ran- 
dolph, of Virginia, was chosen permanent President of the Con- 
gress, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, was appointed 
Secretary. That meeting of the most eminent men of the con- 
tinent in point of abilities, virtue, and fortunes — more eminent 
for these, in the opinion of the venerable Secretary in after- 
years, than any that succeeded them — was a sublime spectacle, 
and drew from the pen of Trumbull, a contemporary poet, and 
the author of " M'Fingal," the following lines : 



* The following are the names of the Representatives: Ncio Ilampsliire — John 
Sullivan, Nathaniel Folsoui; Massaclmsetls—Thomn?, Gushing, Samuel Adams, John 
Adams, llobert Treat Paine; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations — Stephen 
Hopkins, Samuel Ward: Connecticut — Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas Deane; 
Kev) York — James Dnaiie, John Jay, Isaac Low, John Alsop, William Floyd, Philip 
Livingston, Henry Wisuer; Keio Jemey — James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, William 
Livingston, Richard Smith, John De Hart; Pennsylvania — Joseph Galloway, John 
Morton, Charles Humphe3-s, Tliomas Mifflin. Samuel Rhodes, Edward Biddle, George 
Ross, John Dickenson ; Delaware — Caisar Rodnej% Thomas M'Kean, George Read ; 
Maryland — Robert Goldsborough, Samuel Chase, Thomas Johnson, lilatthew Tilgli- 
nian, William Paca; Yiryinia — Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George 
Washington, Patrick Henry, Ricliard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Edmond Pendle- 
ton; Nm-th Carolina — William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, Richard Caswell; South 
Carolina — Henry Middleton, John Rulledge, Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, 
Edward Rutledtre. 



9 

" Xow meet the fothers of this Western clime, 

Nor names more noble graced the roll of Fame ; 

When Spartan firmness braved the wrecks of time, 

Or Rome's bold virtues fanned the heroic flame. 

" Xot deeper thought the immortal sage inspired 
On Solon's lips where Grecian Senates hung ; 
Nor manlier eloquence the bosom fired 

When genius thundered from the Athenian's tongue."* 

"Who shall take the lead ? was a grave question in all minds 
when the Congress was organized. There was a profound and 
painful silence until a plain-looking man, with unpowdered 
hair, a solemn face, a dress of gray cloth, and having the gene- 
ral appearance of a rural parson, arose to speak. He was a 
stranger to most of the assembly; and when his clear and 
sweetly-musical voice filled their ears with eloquent words, 
the question,' Who is it ? ran in quick whispers from lip to ear. 
To a very few he was known as the fiery orator who, nine 
years before, had thrilled the Virginia Legislature, and led it 
to the verge of apparent treason, by denunciations of the 
Stamp Act and the enunciation of the rights of a free people. 
It was Patrick Henry. Then he impelled the representatives 
of Virginia to make bold expression of the rights of man ; now 
he impelled the representatives of a budding nation to vigor- 
ous and noble actions, in laying broad and deep the founda- 
tions of a Republic. One of the earliest and most important 
of these actions was the passage of the following resolution : — 

" liesolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of the- 
Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late acts of Parliament, and if the same 
shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America 
ought to support them in their opposition." 

This resolution, full of tremendous vital force, gave conception 
to a nation. It declared the Anglo-American Colonies a unit. 



* These are from an " Elegy on the Times,'" published while the Congress were 
i n session. 



10 

It solemnly declared that the quarrel of Massachusetts with the 
imperial Government belonged to all the Colonies ; that her 
defiant, rebellions, revolutionary acts — acts which would inevi- 
tably lead to war if resisted, and to independence and nation- 
ality if successfully persisted in — were the acts of all the 
provinces ; that their aspirations, desires, hopes, and interests 
were mutual ; and that they were determined to be free or 
independent, or both. That resolution was the key-note to the 
bugle blast that called a Continent to arms. 

Thirty-one days, during eight consecutive weeks, the Con- 
gress labored in session. They formed wise plans for future 
operations, and gave to the world several remarkable State 
papers. Their action assumed the form of Legishative author- 
ity, and was accepted as such by the people. It gave form 
and expression to public opinion ; and thenceforth the Colonies 
acted in perfect unison upon all subjects pertaining to the 
common welfare. Having agreed that it would be necessary 
" that another Congress should be held on the 10th day of 
May next," imless the grievances complained of should be 
redressed before that time, they adjourned on the 26th of 
October. 

Another Congress assembled at the same place on the lOtli 
of May, 1775. The grievances of the colonists were not re- 
dressed, but largely increased. Great Britain had declared 
her American children to be in a state of rebellion, and had 
sent armed hosts to Boston to crush the head of the dano-erous 
insurrection. Blood had flowed at Lexington and Concord ; 
and the armed minute-men of Kew England, who had taken 
lessons in the art of war the previous year, were rushing 
toward their capital to keep the invading force within its 
narrow peninsula, to which the neighboring yeomanry had 
lately driven the first armed tresspassers upon their soil. It 
was evident that the sword was not likely to be soon sheathed ; 
and sagacious men perceived the urgent necessity for the con- 
struction of a civil government, composed of the powers of the 
provincial Legislatures in concentrated form, that should be 



11 

adequate to cany on a vigorous war and establish the inde- 
pendence of the people. 

Among the truly wise men of America at that time was the 
already venerable and venerated Dr. Franklin, who, more than 
twenty years before, had planned a scheme of government for 
the United American Colonies. He was now a member of 
the second Continental Congress, as a representative of Penn- 
sylvania. His sagacious mind clearly perceived the urgent 
necessity for a concrete civil government, and on the 21st of 
July he offered to the Continental Congress, on his own respon- 
sibility, a plan for a Federal government, which he styled 
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union / but designed 
to continue, as the last Article expressed it, only until the 
grievances of which the colonies complained should be redress- 
ed, when they would " return to their former connection and 
friendship with Great Britain." The Congress had already 
set forth the causes and the necessity for taking up arms, in 
terms which implied perfect union, and made the document 
in its manifest spirit a declaration of independence. " We 
are reduced," they said, " to the alternative of choosing uncon- 
ditional submission to irritated ministers, or resistance by force. 
The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this 
contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. 
Our cause is just, our union is perfect, our internal resources 
are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly 
attainable. Before God and the world we declare, that the 
arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we 
will employ for the preservation of our liberties ; being, with 
one mind, resolved to die freemen rather than slaves." They 
also sent a petition to the King, in which their union was 
boldly announced. "We beseech your Majesty," they said, 
" to direct some mode by which the united applications of 
your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of their 
common councils, may be improved into a happy and per- 
manent reconciliation." 

Notwithstanding these bold words, there was a manifest 



12 

timidity in the Congress, hurtful to necessary vigor. AYhile 
Franklin, the Adamses, Richard Henry Lee, and a few others 
contemplated final separation from and independence of Great 
Britain as the inevitable result of the war just entered upon, 
the great majority of the deputies as well as their constituents 
desired nothing more than the acquiescence of the imperial 
government in the demands of the colonists, and a permanent 
reconciliation. The policy fashioned by such ideas marked 
every step of the Congress. Franklin and his more ardent 
associates deprecated it ; and not being able longer to keep 
silence when silence would be practical acquiescence in a policy 
that would paralyze the army and endanger the great cause, 
he, as we have observed, late in July, oti'ered a plan for a 
temporary civil government, but which, no doubt, he believed 
Avould be perpetual. It proposed to call the nation thereby 
created TnE United Colonies or Kortii xYmerica, and contem- 
plated including in the league, in addition to tlie thirteen 
(Georgia had just sent a delegate to the Congress) provinces 
already represented in the great council, Quebec or Canada, 
St. John's (now Prince Edward's), Nova Scotia, Bermudas, 
West Indies, East and West Florida, and even Ireland. Each 
colony was to retain and amend its own Constitutio'.i and laws, 
while the powers of the General Government, in the exercise 
of the more important functions of sovereignty, were to include 
all questions of war, peace, alliance, commerce, currency, the 
army and navy, Indian aflairs, and tlie control of all public 
lands not then ceded to the provinces by the aborigines. It 
proposed a Federal revenue to be derived from taxes and contri- 
butions from the several colonies, according to their respective 
population of males between sixteen and sixty years of age. 
The Congress was to consist of one body only, whose members 
were to be apportioned triennially according to population, as 
at the present time, and annitally chosen. An Executive 
Council, consisting of twelve persons, chosen by Congress from 
its own body, was to wield the power now exercised by the 
President of the United States. Provision was made for 



13 

amendments, and also for the termination of the league, on 
certain contingencies already made. 

What action was taken on Franklin's proposition at the time 
we have no positive knowledge. It was probably referred to 
a committee, and so the matter rested. The Congress seemed 
to have no fixed plan for the future other than the vigorous 
prosecution of the war. The teeming present, with all its 
vast concerns, seemed to engross their whole attention ; and it 
was not until almost a year later, when the Congress had deter- 
mined to make a public declaration of independence, that the 
subject again received serious attention in that body. 

During the spring of 1776 the colonies, in various ways, had 
spoken out boldly in favor of independence. Virginia in- 
structed her representatives in the Continental Congress to 
projyose it. Already that Congress had made great progress 
toward the establishment of a nation by resolving, early in 
May, "That it be recommended to the general assemblies and 
conventions of the United Colonies, where no government 
sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs hath hitherto been, 
established, to adopt such a government as shall, in the opinion 
of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happi- 
ness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America 
in o-eneral." 

This was a bold step, but one still bolder was taken a little 
more than ten days afterward. Doubt, dread, and hesitation 
had brooded like a fearful cloud over the national assembly, 
and all hearts began to fail, when Richard Henry Lee, of Yir- 
o-inia, arose in the Congress, and with his clear, musical voice, 
read the resolution, " That these United Colonies are, and of 
right ouD-ht to be, free and independent States ; and that all 
political connection between us and the State of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." John Adams, of Mas- 
sachusetts, seconded the resolution. It was considered three 
days afterward, and then further action upon it was postponed 
until the first of July. Meanwhile, that no time should be 



14 

lost in the event of the Congress agreeing thereto, a committee 
^vas appointed to prepare a declaration to that eifect. 

The proposed declaration of independence suggested the 
absolute necessity of a civil government for the United Colo- 
nies in their changed relations to each other and to the British 
crown. Accordingly, on the same day when a committee was 
appointed to draw up that declaration, another, composed of 
one delegate from each province, was appointed to " prepare 
and digest the form of a Confederation to be entered into 
between the Colonies." That committee reported a draft on 
the 12th of Jnly, and it became a subject for debate occasion- 
ally until the 20th of August, when a new draft w^as reported, 
and an order given for eighty copies to be printed for the use 
of the members. 

We find no further notice of the Articles of Confederation 
for almost eight months, w^hen, on the 8th of April, 1777, the 
Congress ordered that " The report of the Committee of the 
whole House on the Articles of Coifederation be taken into 
consideration on Monday next, and that two days in each week 
be employed on that subject." But it was postponed, and for 
months it lay untouched. Finally a victorious British army 
was approaching Philadelphia from the direction of the Chesa- 
peake, and on the advice of Colonel Hamilton, one of General 
Washington's aids, the Congress left Philadelphia and resumed 
their sittings at Lancaster near the close of September. Two 
days afterward they fled to Yorktown, or York, where they 
met on the 30th. Eealizing the fact that the safety of the 
cause must depend upon a more perfect union of the Colonies 
and a more efficient form of national government than a con- 
gress of deputies without any executive head, they resumed the 
consideration of the Articles of Confederation on the 2d of 
October. The discussions commenced on the 7th, and were 
continued until Saturday, the 15th of November, when they 
were agreed to, and a committee, charged with their revision 
and arrangement, were ordered to have three hundred copies 



15 

printed for the use of the Congress and the State Legislatures. 
In these Articles, thirteen in number, the national title given 
was The United States of America, in conformity with a law 
or resolution of Congress passed in September, 1776, directing 
that in all commissions or other legal instruments of writing 
the word " States " should be used where that of " Colonies " 
had been before employed. 

The Congress directed that the Articles of ConfederatioTi 
should be sent to the several State Legislatures for their con- 
sideration, with a circular letter recommending each of them, 
in the event of their approving of the Articles, " to invest the 
delegates of the State with competent powers, ultimate, in the 
name and in behalf of the State, to subscribe Articles of Con- 
federation and Perpetual Union of the United States, and to 
attend Congress for that purpose on or before the 10th day of 
March next." But it was not until the 20th of June following 
that the subject was again taken up in the Congress, when a 
call was made upon the representatives of the States for the 
report of their several constituents upon the Confederation and 
the powers committed to them. Six days afterward a form of 
ratification was adopted for signature, and on the 9th of July 
the delegates from eight States appended their names to it.* 
These were sufficient to cany the instrument into eflect and 
put the new government in motion, but out of deference to the 
remaining five States such action was deferred for almost three 
years. Maryland was the last to acquiesce. Her consent to 
ratify was given on the 1st of March, 1781, f and on the follow 
ing day the Congress met, for the first time, under the Articles 
of Confederation. 

The reasons for hesitation on the part of some of the States 
were various. The limits of this paper will permit a reference 

* These were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. 

f North Carolina ratified the Articles on the 21st of July, 1T78 ; Georgia on the 
24th ; New Jersey on the 2eth of November; Delaware on the 5th of May, 17T9 
and Marj'knd on the 1st of March, 1731. 



16 

to only one or two of the most importance. The Articles did 
not seem to accord with the prevailing sentiments of the peo- 
ple as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. The 
former was based upon a superintending Providence and the 
inalienable rights of man ; the latter rested upon the sovereign- 
ty of declared power. " One," said John Quincy Adams, 
"ascended from the foundation of human government to the 
laws of nature and of nature's God, written upon the heart of 
man ; the other rested upon the basis of human institutions and 
prescriptive law, and colonial charters." The system of repre- 
sentation, by which each State was entitled to the same vote 
in Congress, whatever might be the difference in population, 
was also objectionable. But the most obnoxious feature of all 
was that the limits of the several States were unadjusted and 
unnoticed, and a like neglect was observed concerning the pos- 
session of the " crown-lands," or public domain. 

The government thus formed was simply a league of inde- 
pendent States, the second Article declaring " that each State 
retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every 
power, jurisdiction, and right," which was not, by the Confe- 
deration, " expressly delegated to the United States in Con- 
gress assembled." It was declared, in substance, that all were 
to engage in a reciprocal treaty of alliance and friendship for 
mutual advantage, each to assist the other when help should be 
needed ; that each State should have the right to regulate its 
own internal affairs ; that no State should separately send or 
receive embassies, begin any negotiations, contract engage- 
ments or alliances, or conclude treaties with any foreign power, 
without the consent of the General Congress ; that no public 
ofhcer should be allowed to accept any presents, emoluments, 
office, or title from any power, and that neither Congress nor 
State Governments should possess the power to confer any title 
of nobility ; that none of the States should have the right to 
form alliances among themselves, without the consent of Con- 
gress ; that no State should keep up a standing army or ships of 
war in time of peace, beyond the amount stipulated by Con- 



17 

gress ; that when any of the States should raise troops for the 
common defence, all the ofiicers of the rank of Colonel and 
nnder shonld be appointed bj the Legislature of the State, and 
superior oflScers by Congress ; that all expenses of the war 
should be paid out of the public Treasury ; that Congress alone 
should have the power to coin money ; and that Canada might, 
at any time, be admitted into the Confederacy, when she felt 
disposed. The concluding clauses were explanatory of the 
power of certain governmental operations, and contained 
details of the same. 

Such is a brief outline of the form of government which the 
fathers of the Revolution fashioned while in the midst of a 
great war for their independence ; and such was the organic 
law of the confederated States when, on the return of peace, 
and the acknowledgment of their independence by Great Bri- 
tain, they attempted a national career. But the powers of 
Congress above delineated were so qualified and weakened by 
restrictions that in many instances they were rendered almost 
nugatory. It was expressly provided that the Congress should 
not engage in war ; nor grant letters of marque or reprisal in 
time of peace ; nor enter into any treaties of alliance ; nor coin 
money or regulate its value ; nor levy the sums necessary to be 
raised for the public use ; nor emit bills ; nor borrow money 
on the credit of the United States ; nor make any appropria- 
tions of money ; nor decide upon the number of vessels for the 
navy to be constructed or used, or the land and sea forces to 
be j-aised ; nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or 
navy, unless nine States of the League should consent to the 
same. The executive powers were placed in the hands of a 
committee of the States during the recess of Congress, yet they 
■ could do none of the acts above mentioned without the consent 
of nine States. The General Government had no power of 
taxation, direct or indirect. The revenues of the country were 
left wholly in the control of the States composing the League. 
Each was left to establish its own custom-houses and revenue 
laws ; and the. only means which the Government could use 



18 

in reply to the demands of public creditors and current ex- 
penses had to be derived from the voluntary grants of the 
several States. 'No provision was made for the enforcement 
of the measures which the Congress were authorized to adojDt, 
and any party to the League, being a sovereign State, might 
violate the compact without incurring any other risk than 
the improbable one of civil war ; improbable, because it 
would have been unnatural for the remainder of the Con- 
federacy to attempt coercion. It would have been considered 
an unholy attempt to " subjugate " a " sovereign State," 
and a gross violation of " reserved rights," and the " sacred 
privilege of Secession." 

"When, on the 25th of November, 1TS3, the last hostile 
band left the soil of IS^ew York, and the vessels that bore 
them seaward became mere specks upon the horizon in the 
evening sun, the American saw, with the eyes of faith and 
hope, the bonds of British thraldom fall at his feet, and his 
pulse beat high with the inspirations of conscious freedom 
and absolute independence. lie conceived that the great 
work of the Kevolution was over, and that henceforth his 
beautiful land would be distinguished for uninterrupted peace, 
political and social prosperity, and wonderful national growth. 
Alas ! these natural, generous, patriotic, and hopeful emotions 
were fallacious. They were born of a beautiful theory, but 
derived no sustenance from sober facts. They were the 
poetry of that hour of triumph, entrancing the spirit and 
kindling the imagination. They gave unbounded pleasure to 
a disenthralled people. But there were wise and thoughtful 
men who had communed with the teachers of the Past, and 
sought knowledge in the rigorous school of the Present. They 
diligently studied the prose chapters of the great volume of 
current history spread out before them, .and were not so 
jubilant. They reverently thanked God for what had been 
accomplished; adored him for the many interpositions of his 
providence in their behalf, and rejoiced because of the glo- 
rious results of the struggle thus far. But they clearly per- 



19 

ceived that the peace established by high contracting parties 
would prove to be only a lull in the great contest — a truce 
soon to be broken, not, perhaps, by the trumpet calling 
armed men to the field, but by the stern behests of tlie in- 
exorable necessities of the new-born Republic. The Eevo- 
lution was accomplished, and the political separation from 
Great Britain was complete, but absolute independence was 
not achieved. 

The experience of two years wrought a wonderful change in 
the public mind. The wisdom of the few prophetic sages M'ho 
warned the people of dangers became painfully apparent. The 
Americans were no longer the legal subjects of a monarch 
beyond the seas, yet the power and influence of Great Britain 
■were felt like a chilling, overshadowing cloud. In the pre- 
sence of her puissance, in all that constitutes the material 
strength and vigor of a nation, the League of States felt their 
weakness ; and from many a patriot heart arose a sigh to the 
lips, and found expression there in the bitter words of deep 
humiliation — " We 2a'Q,free^ but not independent ^ 

Why not ? Because they had not formed a nation, and 

THEREBY CREATED A POWER TO BE RESPECTED ; bccauSC British 

statesmen were wise enough to perceive this inherent weakness, 
and sagacious enough to take advantage of it. Without the 
honesty of the King who had acknowledged the independence 
of the United States, misled by the fatal counsels of the refugee 
loyalists who swarmed in the British metropolis, and governed 
wholly by the maxims and ethics of diplomacy, the English 
ministry cast embarrassments in the way of the Confederation ; 
neglected to comply with some of the most important stipula- 
tions of the Treaty of Peace ; maintained a haughty reserve, and 
waited with complacency and- perfect faith to see the whole 
loose' fabric of government in the United States, connected by 
the bonds of common interest and common danger while in a 
state of war, crumble into fragments, and the people return to 
their allegiance as colonists of Great Britain, glad to escaj^e 



20 

from the troubles of anarchy. Their trade and commerce, their 
manufactures and arts, their literature, science, religion, and 
laws, were yet largely tributarj'- to the parent country, without 
a well-grounded hope for a speedy deliverance. To this domi- 
nation was added a traditional contempt of the English for 
their trans-Atlantic brethren, as an inferior people ; and the 
manifestation of an illiberal and unfriendly spirit, heightened 
by the consciousness that the Americans were without a 
government sufficiently powerful to command the fultilment of 
treaty stipulations, or an untrammelled commerce sufficiently 
important to attract the cupidity and interested sympathies of 
other nations. 

The Confederacy, or League of States, having assumed a 
national attitude, its powers and influence were soon tested. 
A debt of seventy millions of dollars lay upon the shoulders of 
a wasted people. About forty-four millions of that amount 
were owing by the Confederate Government (almost $10,000,000 
of it in Europe), and the remainder by the individual States. 
These debts had been incurred in carrying on the war for 
independence. Even while issuing their paper money in 
abundance the Congress had commenced borrowing ; and when, 
in 1780, their bills of credit became worthless, borrowing was 
the chief monetary resource of the Government. This, of course, 
could not go on long without involving the Republic in embar- 
rassment and accomplishing its final ruin. The restoration of 
the public credit or the downfall of the infant republic was the 
alternative presented to the American people at the time we 
are considering. 

With a determination to restore the public credit, the Gene- 
ral Congress put forth all its strength in efforts to produce that 
result. Only a few months after the preliminary treaty of peace 
was signed that body solemnly declared " that the establish- 
ment of permanent and adequate funds on taxes or duties, which 
shall operate generally, and on the whole in just proportion, 
throughout the United States, is indispensably necessary toward 
doing complete justice to the public creditors, for restoring 



21 

public credit, and for providing for the future exigencies of the 
war." Two months later the same Congress recommended to 
the several States, for the same purpose, to vest that body with 
powers to levy, for a period of twenty-five years, specific duties 
on certain imported articles, and an ad valorem duty on all 
others ; the revenue therefrom to be applied solely to the pay- 
ment of the interest and principal of the public debt. It was 
also proposed that the States should be required to establish, 
for the same time and for the same object, substantial revenues 
for supplying each its proportion of one million five hundred 
thousand dollars annually, exclusive of duties on imports. This 
proposition was approved by the leading men of the country, 
but it was not adopted by the several States. They all took 
action upon it in the course of the next three years ; but that 
action w^as rather in the form of overtures — indications of 
what each State was willing to do — not of positive law. All 
the States except two were willing to grant the required 
amount, but they were not disposed to vest the Congress with 
the required power. " It is money ^ notpovjer, that ought to be 
the object," was the jealous remark. "The former will pay 
our dehts, the latter may destroy our liherties." 

This first important efi'ort of the General Congress, or 
Government of the League, to assume the functions of sove- 
reignty was a signal failure, and the beginning of a series of 
faihires. It excited a jealousy between the State and General 
governments, and exposed the utter impotency of the latter, 
whose vitality depended upon the will or caprice of thirteen 
distinct legislative bodies, each tenacious of its own peculiar 
rights and interests, and miserly in its delegation of power. 
It was speedily made manifest that the public credit must be 
utterly destroyed by the inevitable repudiation of the public 
debt. 

The League were equally unfortunate in their attempts to 
establish commercial relations with other governments, and 
especially with that of Great Britain. Overtures were made to 
the British ministry, and William Pitt, then Chancellor of the 



22 

Exchequer, altliongli only twenty-four years of age, introduced 
a bill into Parliament for the regulation of commerce between 
the two countries, by Avhich trade with the British 'West India 
Islands and other colonial possessions of the Crown might be 
thrown open to the enterprise of the merchants of the United 
States. In this measure was involved a powerful element of 
solid peace and harmony between the two countries ; but there 
appeared not to be wisdom enough among the British people 
for a practical perception of it. The shipping interest, then 
potential in the British Parliament, with strange blindness to 
its own welfare and that of the state, successfully opposed the 
measure ; and a new ministry, who speedily assumed the reins 
of powel', listened to other counsels than those of the wise and 
sagacious Pitt. Instead of acting liberally toward the United 
States, as friends and jjolitical equals, they inaugurated a 
restrictive commercial policy, and assumed the ofi'ensive 
hauteur of lord and master in the presence of vassals and 
slaves. Echoing the opinions of the acrimonious Silas Deane, 
the specious Tory Joseph Galloway, and Peter Oliver, the 
refugee Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, English writers and 
English statesmen made ]3ublic observations which indicated 
that they regarded the American League of States as onl}'- 
temporarily alienated members of the British realm. Lord 
Sheffield, in a formidable pamphlet, gave expression to the 
views of the Loyalists and leading British statesmen, and 
declared his belief that ruin must soon overtake the League 
because of the anarchy and confusion in which they were 
involved in consequence of their independence. He assumed 
that the Kew England States in particular would speedily 
become supplicants at the feet of the King for pardon and 
restoration as colonists. He perceived the utter weakness and 
consequent inefficiency of the constitution of the League as a 
form of government, and advised his countrymen to consider 
them as of little account as a nation. He could easily divine 
the eftects of a diversity of feelings and interests when each 
State was allowed to act in its separate capacity as a sovereign, 



23 

with the right to secede at any moment. " Their climate, 
their staples, their manners are different," he said ; " their 
interests opposite ; and that which is beneficial to one is 
destructive to the other. We might as reasonably dread the 
eifects of combinations amono- the Germans as amono- the 
American States, and deprecate the resolves of the Diet as 
those of the Congress. In short, every circumstance proves 
that it will be extreme folly to enter into any engagements by 
which we may wish to be bound hereafter. It is impossible to 
name any material advantage the American States M'ill or can 
give us in return more than what we of course shall have. JSfo 
treaty can he made with the American States that can he hind- 

ing on the whole of them If the American States cJioose 

to send consuls, receive them, and send a consid to each State. 
Each State will soon enter into all necessary regulations with 
the consuls, and this is the whole that is necessary." In other 
words, the League has no dignity above that of a fifth-rate 
power, and the States are only dislocated members of the 
British empire. 

In view of the unfriendly conduct of Great Britain, in 
respect to commercial regulations, the General Congress, in the 
spring of 1781:, asked the several States to delegate powers to 
them for fifteen years, by which they might compel England 
to be more liberal by countervailing measures of prohibition. 
But that appeal was in vain. The States, growing more and 
more jealous of their individual sovereignty, would not invest 
the Congress with any such power ; nor would they, even in 
the face of the danger of having their trade go into the hands 
of foreigners, make any permanent and uniform arrangement 
among themselves. AVithout public credit ; with their com- 
merce at the mercy of every adventurer ; without respect at 
home or abroad, the League of Sovereign States, free without 
independence, presented the sad spectacle of the elements of a 
great nation paralyzed in the formative process, and tlie cold- 
ness of political death chilling every developing function of its 
being. 



24 

The League now sought diplomatic relations with Great 
Britain, because of the inexecution of the Treaty of Peace on 
the part of that power, and met with equal contempt. John 
Adams was sent to England with the full powers of a plenipo- 
tentiary, but he could accomplish very little. His mission was 
almost fruitless. The estimation in which his Government was 
held may be inferred from the question of the Duke of Dorset, 
when, in reply to a letter signed by Adams of Massachusetts, 
Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Jefterson of Virginia, on tlie 
subject of a commercial treaty, in the spring of 1785, he 
inquired whether they were commissioned by Congress or their 
respective States, for it appeared to him " that each State was 
determined to manao;e its own matters in its own wav." 

Adams was never actually insulted ; but the chilliness of the 
social atmosphere in London, and the studied neglect of his 
official representations, often excited hot indignation in liis 
bosom. But his Government was so really imbecile that he 
was compelled to bite his lips in silence. When he recom- 
mended it to pass countervailing navigation laws it had no 
power to do so ; and at length, disgusted with his mission, he 
asked and obtained leave to return home. 

Meanwhile matters were growing injfinitely worse in the 
United States. The Congress became absolutely powerless. 
The States had assumed all sovereign power, each for itself, and 
their interests were too diversified, and, in some instances, too 
antagonistic, to allow them to work in harmony for the general 
good. The League was on the point of dissolution, and the fair 
fabric for the dwelling of Liberty, reared by Washington and 
his compatriots, seemed tottering to its fall. The idea of form- 
ing two or three distinct confederacies took possession of the 
public mind. Western North Carolina revolted, and the new 
State of Franklin, or Frankland, formed by the insurgents, 
endured for several months. A portion of Southwestern Vir- 
ginia sympathized with the movement. Insurrection against 
the authorities of Pennsylvania appeared in the Wyoming 
Valley. A convention deliberated at Portland on the expedi- 



25 

ency of erecting the territory of Maine into an independent 
State. An armed mob surrounded the ISTew Hampshire Legisla- 
ture and demanded a remission of the taxes : and in Massachu- 
setts Daniel Shays placed himself at the head of a large body 
of armed insurgents, and defied the government of that State. 
There was resistance to taxation everywhere, and disrespect for 
law became the rule and not the exception. All this rapid 
tendency to anarchy was justified by the right of secession 
guaranteed by the exercise of independent State sovereignty 
— that hateful political heresy whose logical result is seen in 
the inauguration of the Great Eebellion now (1862) desolating 
the land. There was doubt, and perplexity, and confusion on 
every side. Society appeared to be about to dissolve into its 
original elements. 

Patriots, men who had labored for the establishment of a 
wise government for a free people, were heart-sick. " Illibe- 
rality, jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public 
councils for the good government of the Union," wrote Wash- 
ington. " The Confederation appears to me to be little more 
than a shadow without the substance, and Congress a nugatory 
body, their ordinances being little attended to. To me it is a 
solecism in politics ; indeed, it is one of the most extraordinary 
things in nature that we should confederate as a nation, and 
yet be -afraid to give the rulers of that nation (who are the crea- 
tures of our own making, appointed for a limited and short 
duration, and who are amenable for every action, and may be 
recalled at any moment, and are subject to all the evils they 
may be instrumental in producing) sufficient powers to order 
and direct the affairs of the same. By such joolicy as this the 
wheels of government are clogged, and the brightest prospects, 
and that high expectation which was entertained of us by the 
wondering world are turned into astonishment ; and from the 
high ground on which we stood we are descending into the 

vale of confusion and darkness That our resources are ample 

and increasing none can deny ; but while they are grudgingly 



26 

applied, or not applied at all, we give a- vital stab to public 
faith, and sliall sink, in the eyes of Europe, into contempt." 

Other patriots uttered similar sentiments ; and there was a 
feverish anxiety in the public mind concerning the future, 
destructive of all confidence and ruinous to enterprises of every 
kind. Grave discussions upon the subject occurred in the 
library at Mount Yernon, and Washington suggested the idea 
of a convention of deputies from the several States to make 
arrangements for a general commercial system over wliicli the 
Congress under the Confederation had no control. That sugges- 
tion was luminous. It beamed out upon tlie surrounding dark- 
ness like a ray of morning light. It was the herald and 
harbinger of future important action — the key-note of a loud 
trumpet-call for the wise men of the land to save the tottering 
Republic. It w^as the electric fire that ran along the paralyzed 
nerves of the nation, and quickened into action a broader 
statesmanship, like that displayed by the youthful Alexander 
Hamilton, who, three or four years before, had induced the 
Legislature of the State of Isew York to recommend " the 
assembling of a General Convention of the United States 
specially authorized to revise and amend the Articles of Con- 
federation^ reserving the right to the respective legislatures to 
ratify their determination." Then was planted the seed of the 
National Constitution. 

At length a convention of delegates assembled at Phila- 
delphia, in May, 1787, and in September following their labors 
resulted in the production of our present National Constitution. 
It was submitted to conventions of the representatives of the 
people (not the Legislatures) in all the States. After earnest 
deliberation — after the free discussion of every known princi- 
ple of government involving State rights and State sovereignty 
— after a careful comparison of the advantages and disadvan- 
tages of a consolidated nation and the Confederacy they had 
faii-ly tried, they solemnly declared that " We the People of 
tlie United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, 



27 

establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America." By this solenm act of the People, they became a 
consolidated nation, and the hitherto " Sovereign States" were 
transformed into municipalities, holding the same general 
relation to the National Government as towns and counties did 
to themselves. 

With the birth of the nation, in the spring of 1789, the Con- 
tinental Congress — the representative of the League of States 
• — whose existence began in 1774, expired. Its history is one 
of the most remarkable on record. It was first an almost 
spontaneous gathering of patriotic men, chosen by their fellow- 
citizens in a time of great perplexity, to consult upoib the 
public good. They represented different provinces extending 
a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast, with interests as 
diversified as the climate and geography. With boldness 
unequalled, and faith unexampled, they snatched the sceptre of 
rule over a vast dominion from imperial England of whose 
monarch they were subjects, and assumed the functions of 
sovereignty by creating armies, levying war, issuing bills of 
credit, declaring the provinces free and independent States, 
negotiating treaties with foreign governments ; and finally, 
after eight long years of struggle, wringing from their former 
ruler his acknowledgment of the independence of the States 
which they represented. The career of that Congress was 
meteor-like, and astonished the world with its brilliancy. It 
was also short. Like a half-develoi3ed giant exhausted by 
mighty efforts, it first exhibited lassitude, then decrepitude, and 
at last hopeless decay. Poor and weak, its services forgotten 
by those who should have been grateful for tliem, it lost the 
respect of all mankind, and died of political marasmus. 

Out of the remains of the weak Confederac]) ^ whose bond of 
union was like a rope of sand. Phoenix-like and in full vigor, 
arose a ISTation whose existence had been decreed by the will 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 698 453 2 



of true sovereignty — the People — and whose perpetuity 
depends upon that will. It immediately arrested the profound 
attention of the civilized world. It was perceived that its 
commerce, its diplomacy, and its dignity were no longer expos- 
ed to neglect by thirteen distinct legislative bodies, but were 
guarded by a central power of wonderful energy. It was seen 
that the immortal prophecy of Bishop Berkeley was on the 
eve of fulfilment. Haughty England, who had believed all 
that Lord Sheffield had asserted, and more, and steadily refused 
to send an ambassador to the United States or make commer 
cial arrangements with them while they remained simply a 
League of irresponsible " Sovereignties," now hastened to do 
both, because Commerce, the god of her idolatry, nodded will- 
ing and anxious assent. The very propositions for a commer- 
cial treaty which were rej ected with scorn when offered by Adams 
a few years before, were now revived by the British Government 
itself, and a minister plenipotentiary was sent to the American 
Eepublican Court. France, Spain, and Holland also hastened 
to place their representatives at the seat of the new government, 
and the world acknowledged that the new-born nation was a 
power in the earth — positive, tangible, indubitable. 

Let us remember that we are a Nation, not a League of 
States or Confederacy. Words have deep significance in cer- 
tain relations. Let ns, in thinking, speaking, and writing of 
our Government and its concerns, habitually use the word 
Ratimial instead of Federal. The former expresses a great 
truth, and is broad and noble ; the latter expresses a falsehood, 
and is narrow and ignoble in comparison. The former is cal- 
culated to inspire our children with just, expanded, and patrio- 
tic views ; the latter, by its common use, will tend to perpetu- 
ate the heretical doctrine of State sovereignty^ give our children 
lalse ideas, and make them subservient to sectional bigotry. 
Let ns habitually say, National Congress, National Capitol, 
National Government, National Army and Navy, National 
Judiciary, etc. Let the idea of Nationality peimeate our 
whole political system. 



